Hope On Fire
by Sabriel41
Summary: Siren's Castle was a place for lovers. And here he was, waiting for someone else's to show up. But it had just been that sort of week for Eury Evans...


**Hope on Fire**

_. o ._

Siren's Palace was a place for lovers.

And here he was, waiting for someone else's. But it had just been that sort of week for Eury Evans. He'd been shot at, grappled with some scary-as-hell monster _thing_, had his apartment flooded with tear gas, not to mention that his latest fling, Claire, had dumped him for no good reason.

Probably due to all of this, he'd lost his job. Or, had proclaimed his early retirement over the company intercom seconds before shooting down a blimp to help the man he was supposed to catch. Whatever.

Eury smirked at the last thought; he'd never liked that DJ. Damn, but it was hard to be optimistic, though – he was jobless and homeless, his bike was trashed, he was low on ammo, and that crazy son-of-a-gun Folk was after him… oh, _wait_. Now, _she_ was a looker.

…and he knew her. Kind of. Unless he was much mistaken – and Eury rarely was when it came to women – this was the babe who'd run in on him back at Calvaria. He hadn't even had the chance to ask her name before they'd been caught in the drama between her little friend and the Methuselah.

Sure enough, there was the brat, her scythe in full view. And for once, she wasn't the only one broadcasting the presence of her weapon; from his vantage point on the scaffolding, Eury watched the crowd swell with mercenaries and other fighters. To his surprise, the kid – Machika – was climbing up to where he was, her leaps shaking the scaffolding dangerously.

"Hey, kid," he called down. "Watch it, or you'll bring this whole thing down."

Machika looked up and swung her blade towards him, clinging to the bars with her other hand. "_You _know where he is, don't you? Tell me…!"

Eury was too busy falling to answer. He'd leaned back too far when she'd struck out, causing his feet to slip and sending him from his perch. But his reflexes kicked in ten feet from the ground; diving forward and cursing loudly, he caught at the bar with one hand and skidded his feet across the one under it. He almost forgot to smile cavalierly at the blonde below him until her gasp of surprise carried up to his ears.

Her obvious concern almost made the fact that his arms felt like they had been ripped from their sockets better. Maybe that impression wasn't that far off, though; he was able to descend to the next row of the scaffolds, but when he reached out again to bring his arms to the lower bar, they just… gave out… and for the second time in as many minutes, Eury was reminded of the unfortunate laws of gravity.

The blonde was quick to rush to him, but not fast enough; falling heavily on his arms, Eury crumpled, and was able to manage a weak smirk as he realized his head was being cradled on a wonderfully soft lap before he blacked out.

He wasn't sure how long he was out, but managed a "hey, angel…" to the girl who peered down at him when he awoke. It obviously had been long enough for Machika to descend; she stood over the pair, her hands on her hips. But before he could retaliate – even if he could manage to stand up and glare at the kid, it would be enough – the pretty blonde's eyes narrowed.

"Why do you keep calling me that? Angel, I mean."

Eury only smiled.

"Oh, I see," Ayla scoffed, wondering when he'd taken her hand in his, and just why she hadn't noticed. "A sweet-talker. Well, let me tell you…"

She never had the chance. "_Rain!_" Machika shouted and ran into the crowd, swinging her scythe wildly.

"The hell you talking 'bout?" Eury shouted after her. "It's not…"

"No," Ayla answered instead. "She means the Methuselah. He's up there."

"Oh." Eury pushed himself to his feet, with the girl's hand in his steadying him. She hadn't pulled away, which was rather nice, actually. As others caught sight of the Methuselah, however, the crowd surged forward, jamming the two teenagers closer together.

With one hand on his shoulder which she told herself was for balance, she spoke up. "It's Ayla."

"What?"

"I'm Ayla. You don't have to call me 'angel' anymore."

"Eury Evans, at your service." At her sceptical look, he grinned. "I mean it. My little announcement was taken too damn seriously; the Company sent a mad scientist and one of his little demon-playthings after Rain and I. One _hell_ of a severance package, let me tell you…"

To his surprise, her tone was particularly bitter when she spoke next. "That sounds like Calvaria, all right." As she stepped back, he could swear she was sizing _him_ up; suffice to say that was something that didn't happen very often.

Uncertain of what she was looking for, he looped his hands through the pocket of his nondescript black hoodie and stood straight, holding her gaze. Still, he must have passed muster, for after a couple of seconds, Ayla extended her hand.

"Welcome to the other side, then," she said, laughing as he took her hand and spun her around.

"I'll only join if there's a secret handshake," he teased.

Dancing away from his grasp, she nodded. "I'm sure we can think of something. We should probably get closer to the centre of this, though. Gods only know how much trouble Machika can get into when no-one's keeping an eye on her."

"I don't doubt it," he replied dryly. "That guy - whatever he is to her – deserves her. He's not much better, maybe _worse_." But he followed her into the crowd, one hand on her shoulder from time to time. Carefully, because she was both more skittish and smarter than he usually went for, and he'd seen her boot aside a guy or two whose hands had reached for her.

By the time that the announcer had reached the top of the podium, they'd found an open spot to the side of the main crowd that allowed them a good view of the main podium and the alcove where Machika stood, glaring at him and flashing a thumbs up at Ayla.

Looking at each other and shrugging, they waited as the announcer tapped his microphone. It wasn't their fight.

_But,_ both couldn't help but think, _it was nice not to have to wait alone…_

As fate would have it, they had about enough time for that thought to sink in, and to lean together just slightly in response to the press of the crowd, before a gunshot sounded and everything went to hell. Literally.

Eury immediately had one of his guns in his hand, partially shielding the girl beside him. To his surprise, Ayla was holding another gun – he had supposed that the pouches on the sides of her dress were filled with cosmetics, perhaps a small treat; certainly not _firearms_ – but it looked like she knew what she was doing. Good. There were few things worse than a girl with a gun who didn't know how to fire it.

Shutting his jaw for him, Ayla shook her head. "Rebel, remember? I told you Machika knew how to find trouble! I'm going to go help her; go, stay, whatever." Dashing off in the general direction of her friend, Ayla hadn't gone two steps before she sent one man sprawling with a precisely placed side kick, or doubled another with a vicious backfist after he had grabbed at her shoulder.

Sighing, Eury chased after Ayla. She probably didn't need the help, but – as he spotted Jilleena in the crowd and concluded that Dora Folk and Ys couldn't be far behind – it would be nice to have at least _one_ person in the place that he could trust with his back.

Maybe not his front, though; as he grabbed her hand, the barrel of her pistol pointed at his temple when she spun around. "_Whoa_ there, angel," he murmured, eyes wide but his other hand on his gun. "It's just me. Let's find that friend of yours…"

Her numbed expression fading, Ayla nodded, and they were off.

_. o ._

Only a handful of minutes had passed, but it was…over, now.

And if he hadn't seen first-hand how dreadful some advanced operations could be, Eury Evans decided that he would have been first in line for a new set of arms. With a bullet hole through his left arm and three inches of Ayla's dress wrapped around the wound, they'd become even _less _useful as appendages went. Staggering under the weight of a half-conscious and impossibly bloody Rain, he chanced a weary look over at the blonde, who was half-carrying a battered Machika.

Even half-dead, he could tell that Ayla had great legs… he couldn't quite recall the last fifteen minutes, but he _could_ appreciate her beauty. Managing a smirk – obviously, his priorities were still appropriately aligned – Eury didn't notice Jilleena until he'd run straight into the little brunette.

Jumping back defensively, Jilleena dangled a set of keys from her hand. "Get going," she muttered gruffly, refusing to look up.

Deciding that Rain could stand on his own for a moment, he snatched the keys, affectionately ruffling the shorter girl's hair with his other hand. "You _didn't."_

Carefully fixing her ponytails, Jilleena glared, but her expression quickly changed into one of undiluted mischief. "Stole them? Of course I did, you idiot; I learned from the best. These should be for that white van by the light post. It's not flashy, but it should get you past the checkposts without too much trouble. But you four have to get _out_ of here. Now."

As they drew closer to the vehicle, Eury's eyes widened as he recognized it. "You stole _Folk's_ keys? Even if he's dead… and… that's gross."

"When I took the keys, he wasn't dead," she pouted, her voice steady. "Eury. Your friend here killed Sharem's kid, and she's not going to forgive you."

Tucking Rain's arm back around his shoulder, Eury shook his head. "Point, but there's no way I'm touching that van, Jilly. Do you know what sorts of things could be in there?"

Jilleena tossed her head defiantly. "Look, I checked it out before finding you, silly. It seems the Doctor was relying just on his own power today. Van's clean."

Machika spoke up, her voice ragged. "… why'd you help us, then? I mean…"

Shrugging, Jilleena replied. "I can't kill all of you by myself. And I owe Eury one."

"Call it even, then… I'll miss you, kid," Eury said, reaching forward to tousle her hair and failing as the girl backed away.

"I won't miss you," she spat back, but her smirk wavered. "Now, _go."_

"Will do," he said, managing a smile. "Take care of yourself, Jilly." Turning to Ayla, who had moved to his other side, he held the keys in front of her. "Want to drive?"

Before Ayla could open her mouth, Rain seized one of her arms, Machika held the other, and they pulled her into the back seat of the van. Both the reaper and the Methuselah echoed a decisive "_no._"

"I'll be driving with one hand," he argued, pointing to his useless left arm.

"Trust me," Machika muttered from where she'd crawled up to the passenger seat, "it'll be an improvement."

"If you say so," he replied, pulling the van out of the lot and heading for the highway. Casting a look into the rear-view mirror, he smiled at Ayla. "D'you know how to drive at all?"

"Technically," she replied, but quailed under the combined heat of Rain and Machika's looks. "Not really."

"If we get out of this, I'll teach you," Eury grinned. "It looks like we'll be stuck with each other for a while." They drove in silence for a while, a light snow falling on the city and starting to fog the windows when the thought struck him that they had no apparent destination, and aimless driving was only going to cost them time and money that they couldn't afford. "So, Ayla, there's no rebel handshake, but d'you have a hideout? Headquarters? Anything I should be driving towards?"

To his surprise, Rain spoke up. "There's a doctor who has helped me in the past. Just… stay on this road for the next little while…"

Rain's directions found the small group on the outskirts of the city an hour later, in the small home and laboratory of the doctor he had mentioned, who welcomed them with surprising warmness. Even so, after a couple of minutes of staring unavoidably at the test tubes and chemical things lining the back wall, he had to take a breather, and, after promising to keep his hood up and stay off of the main street, Eury slipped out the back door and leant against the wall, listening to the piano music drifting through the air from the house across the alley. Lighting up a cigarette and sighing in content, he couldn't say he was wholly surprised when the door opened and Ayla moved to join him after a few minutes.

She waved off the proffered cigarette, wrinkling her nose, but echoed his sigh of content. "They're old friends, or they seem to be," she explained after they had stood together for a while. "I felt sort of like I was interfering."

Grinding out the cigarette butt with his heel, and catching an errant snowflake on his tongue, Eury turned and smiled. "I know the feeling." As the music changed – the child he could see through the window was now playing a livelier piece – Eury leant down, rubbed his hands in the snow, and wiped them carefully on the inside of his sweatshirt pocket. Then, holding his hands out to her, he grinned. "C'mon. You might not know how to drive, but I'm willing to bet you're one heck of a dancer. Besides," and here his grin was completely unabashed, "I washed my hands this time."

Hiding her head in her hands, Ayla laughed. "So you did," she replied, lowering her hands and placing one in his, the other on his shoulder. "Let's see if you can keep up."

Although the falling snow made it a little treacherous on their balance as they spun carefully, conscious of their injuries but for the moment, not acknowledging them, a smile crept across Ayla's face and stayed there as Eury twirled her out, laughing as the snow tumbled off of her shoulders and hair. She probably should have protested, considering how close he pulled her afterwards, but couldn't find it in herself to do so.

Like she had told Machika not too long ago - _life was short, and young girls must love._

Looking up at her dance partner – and partner-in-crime – Ayla smiled happily. Eury really _was _kind of cute…

_. o ._

_it's_ _the season of eyes meeting over the noise  
and holding fast with sharp realization  
it's the season of cold making warmth a divine intervention  
(you are safe here)_

_. o ._

…_finis…_

_. o ._

* * *

_Sabe's_ _Scribbles_: This was a Christmas gift-fic for Solain Rhyo, and was influenced by a lot of Vienna Teng's music (the quote above is from her "Atheist Christmas Carol.") Thoughts and concrit are always appreciated! That said, this story goes into an alternate reality from the end of the sixth manga - this was written as speculation regarding the direction of the subsequent issues, and so diverts from canon at that point. 

_Disclaimer: _Vienna's music is hers; "Immortal Rain" belongs to Kaori Ozaki.


End file.
